In the process, he gained valuable insights into how
Indian musicians approach their instruments.
“They practice their asses off,” says Manx. “Practice beyond
practice. There’s a wonderful tradition of dedication in India, which
we could take great lessons from here in the West. Very few of us
have ever applied ourselves to this degree to our music. I did my five
hours a day for five years, and that experience took me from being a
really mediocre player to somebody who could sort of play decently.
“When I decided to leave India after being there about 12 years,
I went to Calcutta and had five mohan veenas made. I’ve given
away three—one to Jerry Douglas—so now I’m down to two.
They’re both good instruments, so that’s probably enough for me.”
Hindustani slide has a rich past, but its future looks even more
promising. “When I started playing Indian classical music,” says
Bhattacharya, “only my guru Pandit Brij Bhushan Kabra and a few
other senior Hindustani slide guitarists were performing and record-
ing. Today, the slide-guitar fraternity around the world is aware of
the technique and sound of this instrument. So much so that one
can say Hindustani slide guitar is now a global instrument.”
Through his new band, Calcutta Chronicles, Bhattacharya con-
tinues to expand the genre with his brother Subashish on tabla and
percussion, and his daughter Sukanya as guest vocalist. “We’ve been
collaborating in the studio with such international musicians as John
McLaughlin, Jerry Douglas, Jeff Sipe, and Adam del Monte,” he says.
Exploring Indian Music as a Player
If, after listening to Hindustani slide, you’re inspired to try the
mohan veena, Manx offers this advice. “To learn Indian music,
there are two aspects to consider. You can’t be a rock guitarist and
just say, ‘Now I’m going to play an Indian thing.’ Unless you simply copy the notes from a recorded raga, you’ll need to learn something about how Indian music works. Each raga has a set of notes
you can play, but if you want to play them properly, you need to
play them in a particular order. For instance, you might have to go
from 1 to 3 to get to 2. If you follow that order, you start to get an
Indian sound and what you play begins to make sense.
“The second consideration is how you approach notes. In Indian
music, it’s really important to know whether you slide up to a note,
slide down to it, or hit it right on. Or do you slide up to another note
and then come back
to the note you want. How you approach
the note is called the meend, and to get a sense of this, you need to get
records of Indian slide players and really listen to how they approach
notes, because that’s the key. It’s the same in blues—B.B. King has a
wonderful meend. He plays two notes and you know it’s him.
“So there’s what to play—the raga side—then there’s how to play
it, which has a lot to do with the meend. These are the two aspects
of Hindustani slide you really want to look at.”
Going Beyond the Guitar
Whether you want to actually play a mohan veena or simply expose
your ears to new melodies and rhythms, the world of Hindustani
slide can provide a lifetime of creative inspiration. Perhaps
Bhattacharya sums it up best: “I have always told myself that music
has no boundaries. As you may know, Indian music has a link to
universal awareness, and this helps me understand the innermost
meaning of music from other cultures. My entire existence is dedi-
cated to working with musicians all over the globe, and—at any
place, at any given time—expressing the rasas [essence] of the nine
unique human moods.”
If you’re drawn to Hindustani slide guitar, it’s worth remember-
ing that at its core, this music is about transcending daily con-
sciousness to experience an altered state. This is the goal for Indian
musicians, as well as their audience. “Onstage,” Bhattacharya
reveals, “when I get deep into the raga, I forget everything. First, I
forget where I’m sitting. Then I forget what I’m doing. And, finally,
I forget my name and who I am.”
Special thanks to Lars Jacobsen of Rain City Music ( raincitymusic.com)
and Salil Bhatt for their help in researching this story.
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